Telecommunications call time slicing system and method

ABSTRACT

A telecommunications system and method provides a time slicing capability whereby alternate services, such as advertising, can be provided to a party while being kept on hold. Thus, charges associated with portions of the call during which alternate services are provided can be billed to other parties, such as advertisers, and the cost for the call to the caller or the called party can be reduced. The connection between the caller and the called party is maintained during the time that alternate services are being provided so that when either the caller or the called party is available to accept or resume a call, the alternate services are terminated and the caller and called party are reconnected.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to time slicing a telephone call so that chargesassociated with different portions of the call can be attributed to twoor more parties.

2. Description of Related Art

Subscribers of toll-free calling services, e.g., 800 calling services,provide toll-free services to encourage or ease the process forcustomers calling the subscriber. However, callers are occasionally kepton hold when calling a subscriber because the subscriber does not haveenough agents available to receive the incoming calls, or for otherreasons. Thus, the subscriber must pay for portions of incoming callswhile the caller is on hold and no business is being transacted. Infact, either the caller or a called party often must pay for portions oftelephone calls when the called party is on hold, e.g., when a caller isput on hold after calling a called party that has a call waitingservice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a call time slicing system and method that allowscharges corresponding to different portions of a single call to bebilled to two or more parties. In one aspect of the invention, a callermaking a call to a subscriber of a toll-free calling service, e.g., an800 service, is initially connected to the subscriber. If thesubscriber, or its agents, are not available to receive the call, thecaller is connected to a second party or device that provides alternateservices to the caller while the caller waits to be connected to thesubscriber. As one example, the alternate services can be an advertisingmessage that is played to the caller while on hold. When the subscriberor its agents are available to receive the call, the alternate servicesare terminated and the caller is reconnected with the subscriber. Thus,since the caller is provided alternate services while kept on hold, theportion of the call during which the alternate services are provided canbe billed to another party, e.g., a company providing the advertisingmessage. The subscriber is only charged for portions of the call duringwhich the caller is interacting with the subscriber.

While on hold, the caller can be connected with two or more alternateparties or a device or devices that provide two or more differentalternate services. For example, two or more different advertisingmessages could be provided to the caller while waiting for the calledsubscriber to receive the call. The subscriber can designate that theincoming call can be received by entering a key or sequence of keys orother signal. Likewise, the subscriber can indicate that a caller isbeing put on hold and an alternate service should be provided byentering a key or sequence of keys, or a lack of activity between thecaller and the subscriber, e.g., no detected voice activity, can triggerthe initiation of alternate services presentation. Once alternateservices have begun to be provided, the alternate services can beinterrupted while in process, or the caller can be reconnected to thesubscriber after the alternate services have concluded. For example, ifa caller is placed on hold and a commercial message is begun, the systemcan wait to reconnect the caller with the subscriber until after thecommercial message is completed, or interrupt the commercial messagemidstream to reconnect the subscriber and caller.

In a preferred embodiment, an existing telecommunications system isconfigured to provide alternate services while a caller is placed onhold. A time-domain multiplexing (TDM) telecommunications systemincluding an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) backbone network having amultipoint-to-multipoint capability is used to connect a caller with asubscriber and provide alternate services. Typically, the call from thecaller to the subscriber is terminated in an automatic call distributor(ACD) maintained by the subscriber. If there is no activity between thecaller and the subscriber, the system connects the caller to a device,such as an intelligent peripheral (IP), that provides alternate serviceswhile the subscriber is not available to receive the call. Alternateservices presentation can be triggered when a device, such as anotherIP, detects that there is no voice activity occurring between the callerand the subscriber. When the subscriber is available to receive thecall, the subscriber notifies the system and the caller is reconnectedto the subscriber. As discussed above, reconnection can be initiated bythe subscriber entering a key, or series of keys, or by another suitablemethod. The alternate services, e.g., a commercial message, can beinterrupted to reconnect the caller and the subscriber, or reconnectioncan be delayed until the alternate service has concluded. Informationregarding whether the subscriber is using the invention, the locationsof IPs and the types of alternate services to be provided, the key orsequence of keys to be used to trigger subscriber/caller reconnect,whether the alternate service should be interrupted to performreconnect, etc. are preferably stored by the telecommunications system,for example in a system control point (SCP), which essentially serves asa database/controller. In some implementations, the SCP keeps track ofthe status of available agents at the subscriber site. If no agents areavailable, the SCP holds the call until an agent is available. Thisaspect of the invention frees SCP resources from keeping track ofsubscriber resources.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent or obviousfrom the detailed discussion of the invention below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is described in detail with regard to the followingfigures wherein like numerals reference like elements, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of steps of a first method for time slicing acall;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of steps of a second method for time slicing acall; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a telecommunications systemconfigured in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The term caller is used to refer to a person or device, such as aprogrammed facsimile device or general purpose computer, that initiatesa telephone call. The term subscriber is used to refer to a person,business entity or device that is being called by a caller and isassociated with call time slicing services in accordance with theinvention. That is, if the subscriber is not available to receive a callfrom a caller, alternate services are provided to the caller while thecaller waits for the subscriber to become available.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of steps for a method of time slicing a call. Instep 100, a caller is connected to a subscriber. Typically, the calleris connected to a subscriber through a telecommunications network by thecaller dialing a telephone number corresponding to the subscriber. Asdiscussed above, the caller can be a person or device, such as aprogrammed facsimile device or general purpose computer. Likewise, thesubscriber can be a person or group of persons or a device or array ofdevices, such as facsimile devices, modems, etc. The telecommunicationsnetwork can be an array of switching devices and associated controlcircuitry and devices as are well known in the art. Thetelecommunications network can be wired or wireless or a combination ofwired and wireless communication services. In short, any communicationssystem capable of providing voice and/or data communications between twopoints can be used.

In step 200, a determination is made whether the subscriber is availablefor caller activity between the caller and the subscriber. Thisdetermination can be a determination whether the subscriber has anavailable agent to speak with the caller, or a determination whether thesubscriber is available to receive data or other information from thecaller, e.g., a facsimile transmission. This determination can be madeby receiving a signal from the subscriber that it is unavailable toreceive the call or by detecting a lack of voice or data transmissionactivity between the caller and the subscriber after the initialconnection is made, or by the SCP looking at subscriber resources.Typically, the caller is connected to an automatic call distributor(ACD) maintained by the subscriber in step 100; and if the subscriber isnot available to receive the call, the caller is placed on hold. Thus,the determination in step 200 can include detecting that the caller hasbeen placed on hold. As is well known, the caller can be placed on holdby a subscriber either at the time of initial connection to thesubscriber and/or at some other arbitrary point during the call. Thus,the determination in step 200, whether the subscriber is available forcaller activity can occur upon initial connection between the caller andthe subscriber, or at a later time during the call.

If the subscriber is available for caller activity, in step 300 theconnection between the subscriber and caller is maintained. (Ifalternate services were being provided, the caller and subscriber arereconnected in step 300.) However, if the subscriber is not availablefor caller activity, the caller is connected to an alternate device thatprovides alternate services in step 400. As discussed above, thealternate services can include an advertising message or otherinformation services. For example, the caller could be provided with amenu of service or information options that can be received. The callercould select one of the options and receive information such as ahoroscope, weather report, etc. The alternate services could be providedbased on pre-recorded information, or provided live by a person. Thealternate services provided can be provided aurally and/or visually, inthe case where the caller has video display capability in addition toaudio reproduction capabilities. Information can also be provided inother forms, such as a facsimile transmission. For example, a callercould call a customer service number associated with a recentlypurchased printer. In this example, the called customer service centeris not initially available to receive the call, and the caller isprovided with alternate services while on hold. The alternate servicescould be advertising information related to replaceable ink cartridgesthat can be used with the printer that is transmitted back to the callerin audio, audio-visual, or other data format. For example, thecommunication device used by the caller to call the customer servicecenter could have the capability of receiving facsimile transmissions.Thus, the advertising information regarding the ink cartridges could beprovided to the communication device in a facsimile transmission dataformat. The information could be later printed or otherwise displayed toa user.

The alternate device that the caller is connected to in step 400 can bea storage/communications device that stores alternate servicesinformation and provides the information to the caller. Optionally, thealternate device could be a communications device maintained by analternate service provider, e.g., an advertising company, rather than bythe telecommunications service provider.

In step 500, a determination is made whether the call has beenterminated. The call can be terminated, for example, by the callerhanging up or otherwise disconnecting from the subscriber or alternateservices device. If the call has not been terminated, flow jumps back tostep 200 where a determination is again made whether the subscriber isavailable for caller activity. If the call has been terminated, anallocation of the charges for the call is made in step 600. In thisexample, the subscriber maintains a toll-free service, e.g., an 800service, and thus would normally be charged for the entire length oftime of the call. However, if the caller was provided with alternateservices in step 400, the portion of the call during which alternateservices were provided is not charged to the subscriber. Instead, thatportion of the call during which alternate services were provided ischarged to the alternate service provider, the caller, or some otherentity, e.g., an advertiser.

Although the example where a subscriber maintains a toll-free servicehas been described, the invention can be used in other scenarios. Forexample, the invention can be used in situations where the caller makesa toll call to a subscriber, and if the subscriber is not available forcaller activity, the caller is connected to an alternate device thatprovides alternate services during the time that the caller is on hold.Thus, the caller would not be charged for that portion of the callduring which alternate services were provided. Instead, the alternateservices provider or some other entity would be charged for the portionof the call during which alternate services were provided.

In addition, the caller need not be connected only to a single alternatedevice that provides alternate services. Instead, the caller could beconnected to a first alternate device that provides first alternateservices. When the first alternate services are concluded, the callercould be connected to a second alternate device, and so on. Thus, thecall can be “sliced” into multiple segments where different segments ofthe call are charged to different entities depending on what happenedduring each segment of the call.

In addition, the subscriber and caller need not be immediatelyreconnected when the subscriber is available for caller activity.Instead, if alternate services are being provided, the caller andsubscriber could be reconnected only after the alternate services haveconcluded.

Further, the alternate services could only be made available when thecaller is placed on hold after initially being connected to thesubscriber. Thus, if the caller is placed on hold by the subscriber at alater time during the call, alternate services providing could beblocked. In contrast, alternate services could be provided at any timeduring the call that the caller is placed on hold, or the subscriber isotherwise unavailable for caller activity.

Although the method above has been described such that only the callercan be provided alternate services, the invention can be modified toprovide alternate services to the subscriber, or called party, inaddition to the caller. For example, a caller could initiate a call toanother called party and then later place the called party on hold.During this period, the called party could be provided alternateservices, thereby reducing the total charges to the caller for makingthe call. In this case, a determination would have to be made regardingwhich of the caller or the called party has been placed on hold so thatalternate services can be provided to the appropriate party.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of steps for a method of time slicing a call inwhich alternate services are provided to either the caller or the calledparty. In step 101, a caller is connected to a called party. In step201, a determination is made whether the caller and the called party areavailable for caller activity. If both the caller and the called partyare available for caller activity, in step 301 the connection betweenthe caller and the called party is maintained. (If alternate servicesare or were being provided to either the caller or the called party, thecaller and the called party are reconnected in step 301.)

If either the caller or the called party are not available for calleractivity, in step 401 a determination is made regarding which party isunavailable. In step 402, alternate services are provided to theavailable party, which can be either the caller or the called party.

In step 501, a determination is made whether the call has beenterminated. If not, flow jumps back to step 201. If the call has beenterminated, the charges for the call are allocated appropriately in step601. For example, in a case where the caller would normally be chargedfor the entire length of time that the caller and the called party areconnected, including any time that the called party or the caller isplaced on hold, in this example, the caller is charged only for thatportion of the call that the caller and the called party are actuallyconnected and interacting. Other portions of the call when alternateservices are provided are charged to either the called party, analternate service provider, the caller or another party, as appropriate.

The method shown in FIG. 2 can be useful in situations where, forexample, the called party has a call waiting service. Currently, if thecaller calls a called party having a call waiting service, the callercan be charged for time that the caller is connected to the calledparty, but not engaging in caller activity, e.g., communicating with thecalled party. In this example, the caller could be provided withalternate services, e.g., advertising messages, during the time that thecaller is waiting to communicate with the called party. Thus, the callerwould normally not be charged for time during which the alternateservices are being provided. Of course, this is only one exemplaryapplication for the invention. The invention can be used in anycommunication system where the caller and called party temporarily stopcommunicating while one of the parties is placed on hold.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary telecommunicationssystem configured in accordance with the invention. Thetelecommunications system 10 is a TDM network having an ATM backbone 5.As one example, a caller 1 dials a toll-free number, e.g., an 800number, that designates a subscriber 2 that the caller 1 would like tocall. A service switching point 31 (SSP) receives the number and queriesa system control point 4 (SCP) regarding the number. The SCP 4 returnsan indication to the SSP 31 that the number is associated with a timesliced service and other information regarding the time sliced serviceto be provided. The other information regarding the time sliced servicecan include the announcement numbers and locations of intelligentperipherals (IPs) that will provide alternate services, a key orsequence of keys that designate a subscriber 2 is available for calleractivity, an indication whether an alternate service in progress shouldbe completed or interrupted when the subscriber 2 indicatesavailability, and/or an indication whether voice activity detection orother detection features should be active after a first set of alternateservices are provided.

The SSP 31 indicates to the ATM backbone 5 to establish amultipoint-to-multipoint connection with the ATM end point of the caller1 as the root and the subscriber 2 as a first leaf (leaf1). The SSP 31also indicates that the call to the subscriber 2 should pass through anIP 61 capable of detecting subscriber 2's availability. The ATM backbone5 connects the caller 1 to an automatic call distributor (ACD) 7 for thesubscriber 2 through a set of ATM switches 51-54 and a destination SSP32. In this example, the IP 61 detects that the subscriber 2 is notavailable to receive caller 1's call by detecting a lack of voiceactivity after a specified amount of time after the call is firstreceived by the ACD 7. However, the IP 61 could determine that thesubscriber 2 is unavailable in other ways, including detecting a lack ofdata transmission, receiving a signal from the subscriber 2 representingsubscriber 2's unavailability, etc. Alternately, this determination canbe made by the SCP 4 if the SCP 4 keeps track of subscriber resources.

When the IP 61 detects that the subscriber 2 is unavailable, thedestination SSP 32 queries the SCP 4. The SCP 4 provides instructions toconnect the caller 1 with an IP 62 that provides alternate services tothe caller 1 while the subscriber 2 is unavailable. In this example, theIP 62 stores commercial messages and plays the commercial messages tothe caller 1 while the subscriber 2 is unavailable. However, asdiscussed above, the IP 62 could provide other services or informationto the caller 1 as desired. In addition, the caller 1 could be connectedto another subscriber 2 or other party (not shown) rather than the IP 62to receive alternate services. In this example, the IP 62 is the secondleaf (leaf2) of the multipoint-to-multipoint connection in thetelecommunications system 10.

Each time an alternate service, e.g., a commercial message, is provided,a billing record is made for the company or other entity that owns thealternate service as if a call were made to a toll-free number owned bythe company or entity. In addition, the amount of time spent or valueassociated with providing the alternate services is deducted from thetotal call minutes of or charges for the call from the caller 1 to thesubscriber 2. Thus, the call from the caller 1 to the subscriber 2 canbe sliced into several different portions where each portion of the callattributable to a different subscriber 2 or other entity is billed tothe appropriate subscriber 2 or entity.

When the subscriber 2 is available to receive caller 1's call, thesubscriber 2 indicates its availability. The subscriber 2 can indicateits availability by pressing a key or sequence of keys that arerecognized by the destination SSP 32 or by providing some otherindication, such as a voice message recognized by the IP 61, etc.

If the IP 62 is in the middle of providing alternate services, thedestination SSP 32 will either terminate the alternate services andreconnect the caller 1 to the subscriber 2, or wait until the alternateservices are completed before reconnecting the caller 1 and thesubscriber 2. This determination whether to interrupt the alternateservices or wait until services are complete is made based oninformation provided by the SCP 4.

After the caller 1 and the subscriber 2 are reconnected, the IP 61 canstart subscriber availability detection, e.g., voice activity detection,to again connect the caller 1 to the IP 62 if the subscriber 2 placesthe caller 1 on hold again. Alternately, alternate services could beblocked if the subscriber 2 places the caller 1 on hold after the caller1 and the subscriber 2 are initially reconnected. That is, alternateservices may be provided only if the caller 1 is placed on holdimmediately after the caller 1 is initially connected to the subscriber2, if desired.

After the call is terminated, e.g., the caller 1 or the subscriber 2hangs up the phone, the call and all multipoint-to-multipointconnections are terminated and a billing record is created for the call.As discussed above, portions of the call during which alternate servicesare provided are typically not billed to the subscriber 2, but insteadare billed to the caller 1 or another entity, e.g., an advertiser. Thecaller 1 might be billed in a situation where the caller chooses toaccept alternate services, such as a weather report or other servicetypical of a 900-type call.

Although the telecommunications system 10 is described above inconnection with a subscriber 2 that provides a toll-free calling serviceand associated time slicing services, the telecommunications system 10could be configured to provide two-way time slicing services asdiscussed above in connection with FIG. 2. For example, the calloriginated by the caller 1 could be a toll call that is normally chargedto the caller 1, and when the subscriber 2 places the caller 1 on hold,alternate services provided to the caller 1 would be deducted from thecaller's 1 charges for the call. In addition, alternate services couldbe provided to a called party if the caller places the called party onhold. In that case, time slicing services are associated with thecalling party and corresponding information is stored in the SCP 4 orother control database.

While this invention has been described in conjunction with specificembodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modificationsand variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.Accordingly, preferred embodiments of the invention as set forth hereinare intended to be illustrative and not limiting. Various changes may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method of time slicing a telecommunications call, comprising:connecting a caller to a subscriber of a time slicing service; then:determining if the subscriber is available to continue the call from thecaller; connecting the caller to an alternate device that providesalternate services when the subscriber is not available to continue thecall; terminating the alternate services and resuming communicationbetween the caller to the subscriber when the subscriber is available tocontinue the call; and determining a portion of total call chargesassociated with the call that is attributable to at least one entityother than the subscriber based on the alternate services provided bysaid alternate device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofconnecting a caller comprises: connecting the caller to an automaticcall distributor associated with the subscriber.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the step of connecting a caller comprises: connecting thecaller to the subscriber through a telecommunications system having anATM backbone.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of connecting acaller comprises: determining if the subscriber is associated with timeslicing services; and determining at least one of an alternate devicethat provides alternate services, a key sequence that indicates thesubscriber is available to receive a call, whether alternate services inprogress should be completed or interrupted when reconnecting a callerto the subscriber, and whether alternate services should be provided atany point after the subscriber receives the call.
 5. A method of claim1, wherein the step of connecting a caller comprises: routing the callthrough a device capable of detecting if the subscriber is available toreceive the call.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofdetermining if the subscriber is available comprises: detecting voiceactivity between the caller and the subscriber.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein the step of determining if the subscriber is availablecomprises: receiving a signal from the subscriber indicating that thesubscriber is not available to receive the call.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein the step of connecting the caller to an alternate devicecomprises: maintaining the connection between the caller and thesubscriber as active; and connecting the caller to an IP that providesthe alternate services.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofconnecting the caller to an alternate device comprises: connecting thecaller to a device that provides advertising information to the caller.10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of terminating the alternateservices comprises: receiving a signal from the subscriber representingthat the subscriber is available to receive the call.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the step of terminating the alternate servicescomprises: receiving a signal representing that the subscriber isavailable to receive the call; and interrupting the alternate servicesto reconnect the caller and the subscriber.
 12. The method of claim 1,wherein the step of terminating alternate services comprises: waitinguntil the alternate services are complete before reconnecting the callerand the subscriber.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofdetermining a portion of total call charges comprises: allocatingcharges to an entity that owns advertising information that is providedto the caller during the call.
 14. A method of time slicing atelecommunications call, comprising: connecting a caller to a calledparty; then: determining that one of the caller and the called party isnot available for communication with the other of the caller and thecalled party; connecting the other of the caller and the called party toa device that provides alternate services while the caller or calledparty is not available; terminating the alternate services and resumingcommunication between the caller and the called party when both thecaller and the called party are available for communication; anddetermining a portion of total call charges that are attributable to atleast one of the caller, the called party and another entity based onthe alternate services provided by said device.
 15. A telecommunicationssystem having a time slicing capability, comprising: connecting meansfor connecting a caller to a called party; availability determiningmeans for determining that one of the caller and the called party afterbeing connected is not available for communication with the other of thecaller and the called party; alternate services means for providingalternate services to the caller when the caller or called party is notavailable; terminating means for terminating the alternate services andresuming communication between the caller and the called party when boththe caller and the called party are available for communication; andcharge determining means for determining a portion of total call chargesthat are attributable to at least one of the caller, the called partyand another entity based on the alternate services provided by saidalternate services means.
 16. A telecommunications system having a timeslicing capability, comprising: an originating switch that receives asignal from a caller indicating a desire to be connected with a calledparty; a controller that provides information regarding how the signalfrom the caller should be handled; a destination switch that connects tothe called party based on information from the controller; a switchingnetwork that interconnects the originating switch with the destinationswitch; a sensing device that detects that one of the caller and thecalled party after being connected is not available for communication;and an alternate services device that provides alternate services to theother of the caller and the called party while the caller or calledparty is unavailable; wherein portions of the call during whichalternate services are provided are charged to entities based on thealternate services provided by said alternate services device.
 17. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the switching network is an ATM backbonehaving a multipoint-to-multipoint connection capability.
 18. The systemof claim 16, wherein the sensing device is an IP device that detects alack of communication between the caller and the called party.
 19. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the alternate services device is an IP thatprovides advertising information to the caller while the called party isunavailable.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein portions of the callduring which advertising information is provided to the caller ischarged to an advertiser associated with the advertising information.21. The system of claim 16, wherein the sensing device comprises an SCPthat does not keep track of called party resources.